The Sunday Memory Drawer - What I Am Binge Watching on Hulu

The Hulu streaming service is a Sunday Memory Drawer all by itself.   I recently subscribed and I was immediately amazed by the number of old and classic TV  shows you can find on there.  What a wonderful diversion to what is considered prime time television in 2017.

Now one of the first shows I have started to binge watch is "Lou Grant."  I am about 75% of the way through the first season and I managed that in less than a week.  Think about that.  I am riveted by a show that is 40 years old!

Or is it that old?   Two of the episodes from 1977 seemed to be ripped right out of cable news in 2017.  One involved a Nazi-based white supremacy group.  Hello?!   Another covered what we now know as "fake news."   Amazing and this goes to prove that there are no real new issues in current events today.

All of which is why "Lou Grant" wound up at # 14 on my list here of my Top 25 Favorite TV Shows of All Time.   And, if I keep watching on Hulu, I just might have to revise that list and move the show up the ranks.

Okay, a pet peeve of my writing partner is a TV show set in a working environment where you never see the people actually working. His prime example is the old "Mary Tyler Moore Show." A major market newsroom. There were about four people working there at any given time. And all they were doing was sitting at their desks while Mary and Murray chatted.

You cannot make the same claim about "Lou Grant." No characters on TV worked harder than those employees in the Los Angeles Tribune newsroom. They work, they research stories, they write, and they then work and research some more. Indeed, I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything about the personal lives of the characters. Unless, of course, they were discussing it at the local watering hole. After long hours of work.

There was also no other TV show that so realistically depicted the world of journalism as "Lou Grant" did. They grabbed onto any current issue in our country and immediately turned it into some weekly plot that somehow managed to be balanced, unbiased, and....gasp, entertaining.

Maybe the reason why I loved "Lou Grant" so much is because, to this day, I have always been an avid reader of the daily newspaper. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I learned to read because my dad used to buy not one, not two, but three daily NY papers. And, for some goofy reason, he used to go down and wait at the subway station every night for the delivery of the next day's Daily News---the Night Owl edition. In those days, they were pretty proud to boast that you could "read tomorrow's news tonight." Totally useful unless you were looking for any baseball scores. But, like clockwork, my dad would wait for that newspaper delivery every night at 830PM. He'd bring them home and then I would devour them. 

Well, not the whole paper. But, I would zero in on the baseball page, the movie listings, and the comics. I was five years old. A year later, on one of my first days in the first grade, there was a newspaper on the teacher's desk. I picked it up and started to read it to the class, much to Mrs. McKnight's surprise. Before I knew it, I had been dragged down to the principal's office so he, too, could hear my rendition of that day's adventures with Dagwood.

About a week later, I was in the second grade. And I have the daily newspaper to thank for the educational shortcut.

So, even now, there is always a newspaper in my daily regimen. The news. The sports. The comics. The Sudoku puzzle. Whatever the city, whatever the season. In California, the LA Times is left in front of my door by 6AM. And, sometime before 10AM, I am spending quality time with some black and white print.
Sundays are no different. Indeed, they're even more special because it takes more time to sift through all the sections. 

As I binge on "Lou Grant" reruns today, my appreciation for this traditional news dispersal is enhanced anew. The fictional LA Tribune on that show was a dying breed even when it first appeared on TV screens in the late 70s. Now, newspapers are dropping like the flies they used to swat. And I cringe at the thought of a day without them.

And I am amazed all over again at the performance of Edward Asner as the lead character. Consider that Lou Grant, as a character, started out on the half-hour "Mary Tyler Moore" sitcom. In that forum, he was a cartoon---a hard-boiled alcoholic with a heart of gold. Prone to screaming and temper tantrums. Somehow, on Lou's route to the cast list of a dramatic TV show, the character evolved into a multi-layered individual. You can still see the original comedic threads, but there is now so much more. It is fascinating to me that Asner and the writers managed to achieve such a changeover. Truly one of the greatest creative transitions ever created for the small screen.

Another remarkable performance in the cast is Nancy Marchand as Tribune owner Mrs. Margaret Pynchon, decades before she did a 180 degree turn and created the diabolical character of Tony Soprano's mother.   Light years of difference and mesmerizing.  Marchand won a pack of Emmys on both of those groundbreaking shows and they were all well deserved.

I can wax even more poetically about "Lou Grant," but I can't ignore one more baseline reality. The show gave me actress Linda Kelsey every week and I could watch her read the classified ads.

But, only those classified ads that you would find in a daily newspaper. If you're reading this entry right now, do me a favor. Turn off the freakin' computer and go open up the paper. There is nothing like it.

And watch "Lou Grant" on Hulu, please.

Dinner last night:  Bacon wrapped Dodger Dog at the NLDS Game # 1.